As in 2002, the fruit
was picked at Baumés ranging from about 12.5 to 14.0°.
The wine was fermented by wild yeast in new French barriques. It
remained in oak for four months, before being coarsely filtered
and bottled.
| Colour: |
Brilliant light gold |
| Bouquet: |
Complex grapefruit and lemon aromas and barrel
ferment characters are balanced by just the right amount of
vanillin oak |
| Palate: |
Delicious soft and round velvet fruit flavours
are complemented by good clean oak and firm but not harsh acidity |
| Cellaring: |
5 years |
| Food: |
All types of seafood, pasta, chicken and veal |
|
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Paul Ippolito,
Wine Talk
July 2005
This wine is outstanding. From each of the moments you nose then
taste it, it delivers unrivalled elegance, class, complexity and
excellence in winemaking. A brilliant pale straw lemon in colour,
it projects subtle delicate yet persistent and pure fruit through
its aroma. You get lovely crisp apple, fig, white peach and tropical
fruit. The palate delivers in a soft creamy finish with cashew and
fig as well as subtle oak. Young soft acidity with a good firm backbone
supports the fruit. A medium bodied tight elegant style with a long
complex finish of flavours. Very well balanced with subtle French
oak influence. Serve with Tasmanian scallops. Should cellar at least
5-7 years. A wine of this calibre is well priced at around $55.
Greg Duncan Powell, The Sydney Morning
Herald
Spectrum Life, 25-26 June
'Cullen is one of the established wineries
of Margaret River, having first planted in 1971. Its Semillon sauvignon
blanc and cabernet merlot are so renowned that the chardonnay is
often ignored. It shouldn't be. As top-end chardonnays go, it is
one of the more unusual and is amazingly complex. This vintage seems
to offer a different nuance with every sniff.'
Jeni Port, The Sydney Morning Herald, Good Living
14 June 2005
"Ocean winds moderate the region's
warm climate. The maritime influence (a recurring theme) and the
predominant Mendoza clone underpin the distinctive style - best
exemplified by winemaker Vanya Cullen's dusty, lemon sherbert, cut
pear, dried pear and fig flavours. Overlaid are winemaking influences
such as wild yeast and malolactic fermentation, but the intrinsic
quality of Margaret River chardonnay remains the same. It is an
assured elegance. The taste has intense fruit power coupled to a
surprisingly fine structure."
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